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do you live in a one or two story house?

Autumnovember|1295284436|2824984 said:
I go between two houses because of school right now so my parents home is 2300 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, on two levels, and a decent fully finished basement. SO's place is 1300 sq ft with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and it's all on one floor. Personally, I can't wait to move into a two story house with SO. I'm not diggin the one story house.
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I'm actually curious, why not?

I did really think as a kid that two story houses were AMAZING. I guess I'm older now and my knees HATE them! It was absolute torture after I had my kid, especially since I had to carry her up and down the stairs. I'm a wuss.

My friend's home is massive...3 stories and about 5500 feet (she's the one with the triplets). She and her DH came over a couple of weeks ago and said it was a real treat to talk in normal voices and not worry about noise waking up the triplets. I was like eh? How is that possible when your house is so big? Of course layout has something to do with it, but they said the plumbing is super loud, the way the pipes are set up, you can just hear every sink and toilet. Our little house is much quieter in that sense.

I was blessed enough to grow up in a 2400 sq ft one story house (not huge, but certainly a good size!), and I think maybe size has something to do with the fact of why I hated one story back them. It seemed to take FOREVER for a little kid to get from one side of the house to the other. Back then, we only had one phone so we often missed the call trying to get the phone from the far ends of the house. The much smaller house I live in now seems more manageable. And vacuuming a one story house is SO nice. (of course, one could just get two vacuums, but I probably wouldn't because I'd spend my money on something else).
 
Our house is a raised bungalow with walk out basement, 6 stairs up and 6 stairs down - 2900 sqft. 3 bedrooms + office - 3 full baths. It's perfect for us!
 
[quote="TravelingGal|1295285022|2824996My friend's home is massive...3 stories and about 5500 feet (she's the one with the triplets). She and her DH came over a couple of weeks ago and said it was a real treat to talk in normal voices and not worry about noise waking up the triplets. I was like eh? How is that possible when your house is so big? Of course layout has something to do with it, but they said the plumbing is super loud, the way the pipes are set up, you can just hear every sink and toilet. Our little house is much quieter in that sense.[/quote]

There could also be echoing. During the summer I stayed at a huge home with 5 beds/baths and could hear EVERYTHING. Even the whispering conversations consisting of pure gossip. lol

We've had nearly every size house going from one story up to 3. Ranging from 1,000 to 2300 (or was it 2700?) I don't remember. For a family of four, our ideal is 2,000 mostly because we need the extra room when friends come over! I don't like basements b/c there is so much moisture in the Northwest, I think the dampness can be a breeding ground for mold.

We live in an apt. right now, which we hope to move out of when our lease is up. We're looking into a 1900 sq foot condo (three floors, 3 bedrooms, office, and 2.5 baths) in one of two complexes and if we're lucky, one will become available in August.
 
We have a one storey home, 1297 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. No basement, just a four foot crawl space. And a one-car garage.

I LOVE one-storey living. I've always wanted to live in a ranch home, and now I do. Our layout is perfect, with the private spaces (bedrooms and bathrooms) on one side of the house, and the public spaces on the other.

We may end up moving one day because of the one-car garage, which gets very old during the winter months. If we stay, we'll add on about ten to fifteen feet off the back of the house to expand the kitchen, dining room, and family room, and dig a basement out underneath. I'm thinking we'll just end up moving in the end, though, if we decide to do anything.

But I love our home. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's all windows and open spaces and interesting nooks and crannies and vaulted ceilings. I have been my most creative while living in this house.
 
Haven|1295286453|2825025 said:
We have a one storey home, 1297 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. No basement, just a four foot crawl space. And a one-car garage.

I LOVE one-storey living. I've always wanted to live in a ranch home, and now I do. Our layout is perfect, with the private spaces (bedrooms and bathrooms) on one side of the house, and the public spaces on the other.

We may end up moving one day because of the one-car garage, which gets very old during the winter months. If we stay, we'll add on about ten to fifteen feet off the back of the house to expand the kitchen, dining room, and family room, and dig a basement out underneath. I'm thinking we'll just end up moving in the end, though, if we decide to do anything.

But I love our home. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's all windows and open spaces and interesting nooks and crannies and vaulted ceilings. I have been my most creative while living in this house.
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One thing to think about is if you ever decide to buy a two-story is where the kids' rooms will be in relation to the rooms below. My kids are VERY noisy and wrestle and stuff and I'm glad that their rooms have never been directly above the rooms we'd have guests in. Also when they had friends over, there would be thumping noises, etc., and they wouldn't disturb conversations w/friends or phone calls.
 
We'll never buy a two-storey home, if I can help it. :bigsmile:
I grew up in a split-level home with three separate storeys and I much prefer our ranch living to that.
 
1 story 1900 sq ft spanish style house, built in the 30s. If we stay here we'll expand to 2 stories and put I'd like to build a guest house/playroom over the garage.
 
Haven|1295287737|2825052 said:
We'll never buy a two-storey home, if I can help it. :bigsmile:
I grew up in a split-level home with three separate storeys and I much prefer our ranch living to that.
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Yeah, it's nice there are so many options out there. Our goal is to move into the condos we're eyeing (which are townhomes) and then a few years after buy in the neighborhood we were previously renting in. The prices have plumetted there!

They're all two story so we don't have much choice and I like two stories. I'm really REALLY disorganized, though, so it's nice that I can hide that fact when people come over! lol

My husband and I have upgraded/downgraded many times now and have decided 2000 sq. feet is the best while the kids are at home. When they move out, we'd like something around 1000.
 
2 story colonial, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, 2800 sqft. Fully finished basement which is an add'l 1200 sqft which is MAN TOWN! pool table, full bar. My DH loves it down there!

I'm a 2 story fan myself. I like the fact that the bedrooms are upstairs so that when we have guests over we can put my DS to sleep and he doesn't wake up from us talking. I also like the fact that when guests come over I don't have to worry about cleaning the upstairs which is just the bedrooms and some bathrooms. If I had a one story, I think I would feel like I had to clean the whole house. We also have a small playroom on the first floor which is nice because my DS can have all of his toys downstairs in the playroom and not in his bedroom upstairs. So when we have playdates all the kids end up in the downstairs playroom. But it is personal, my friends LOVE their ranch!
 
We have a 1410 square foot condo (we bought it recently so I remember). It is a corner unit and about midway up a highrise. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a dining room and eat in kitchen. We thought it was huge at first, but now that we're settled in we're missing the house and the separation that different floors offer (we're both working from home at the moment).
 
[quote="TravelingGal|1295285022|
I did really think as a kid that two story houses were AMAZING. I guess I'm older now and my knees HATE them! It was absolute torture after I had my kid, especially since I had to carry her up and down the stairs. I'm a wuss.

[/quote]
i hear my friends say the same about their 2 story homes as they get older,now they wish for a 1 story home.
 
The houses I grew up in were all 2 or 3 story. I never really thought about which I preferred until my husband and I began to look at condos. We were drawn to places that were on the first floor, and all were one story units. We decided that we didn't want to deal with a lot of stairs anymore, so we bought a condo that gave us easy access. We've moved a few times since then and we still prefer one story, first floor living. We're not in our forever home so we may change our minds in time though.
 
Used to own a 1400ish sf 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom (+ a toilet in the basement, counted as a half bath) two-story Colonial style house with a basement and attached garage and yard.

Now we rent an 890 sf 1 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom condo on the 3rd floor of 4 with a 5'x5' storage locker in the parking garage. We get two parking spots.

Oh and our rent now is 39% more than we paid for our mortgage. Gotta love the Bay Area!
 
Our house was built in 1949 and is a cape cod style without dormers. We have 720 square feet on the main level with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Our basement is another 720 square feet and is finished. About 50% of the basement has carpeting and is used has a hodge podge man cave/home gym/hang out area and the other 50% has the washer and dryer, pantry, built-in storage, hot water tank and furnace. There is a little room off of the carpeted area that has it's own closet that will likely be turned into a clothes closet and computer nook so we can use the rest of the space as a family room/home gym. The attic takes up the entire roof line and we use it as storage. We also have a 1.5 detached car garage. The garage has a screened-in porch attached to it and I have my "Golden Girl" wicker furniture in there for the warmer months ::)

I've only ever lived in 1 story, ranch style homes with no basement so the stairs are a new thing for me. I don't mind them too much, especially since we have a laundry shoot so you really are only lugging clean laundry upstairs.
 
Two story house with an unfinished basement. We'll finish it probably in the next couple of years. 3,200 square feet not including the basement (which is another 1,000 I think?). I love my house and hope we never move.
 
Two stories, 3380 sq feet. Don't know why I remember that exactly. 5 bed, 3 bath, loft, and 4 car stacked garage. No basement.
Not to many California houses have basements.

I would rather have a one story. We are 50 now, we will have to see how well we hold up in the future.

Too much to clean. 1200 sq feet looks pretty good, if I could get everyone to move out!
 
Here in Florida one story about 1500 sq. ft.. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. In Michigan two stories 3000 sq. ft. with four bedrooms and 3 baths.
Luckily, in Michigan the master sweet is downstairs. I love the size of the Florida house until we have company and then it's a little cramped.
 
DH and I live in a one-story ranch, a little over 1,500 sq ft; 4 bedrooms, 2 bath. We have 2 acres in upstate NY. I desperately wanted to hire a contractor for a basement (we currently have a slab foundation - we lack some storage space, etc), but DH believes that the money would be better suited to build a larger 2-story home in the far, far future. It's only the 2 of us (and our adorable dog) so we each have an 'office' and then there's a guestroom...plenty of space for just us.
 
We own a two story house 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home. It's only 1550 square feet but feels huge for just the two of us, my kitty cat and my snarly, grouchy Rottweiler. We moved from an Oceanfront condo on the boardwalk which was tiny to here thinking we would grow into it and we still only use the bedroom and the small keeping room (den) to the side of the kitchen just like we had in our studio condo. If I don't have children, I think we'll go more urban and get a loft or something smaller with a killer view and nearby amenities.
 
My ex-husband and I built two houses and while it's fun to have everything done your way, I wanted some trees and an established neighborhood. So I took the money he had to give me to buy me out of the house and boat and sank it into an all-brick, 3-2-2 on a corner lot with 1580 square feet. Slab foundation; so no basement, which I dearly miss. It is one story, two stories are a nightmare to heat and cool in Texas. Plus I'd be homicidal if I had to vacuum stairs.
 
One story. 3 br, 2 bath, but only..I forget the square footage..1000 or so. We do have a basement tho, but it doesn't go under the dining area, so it's only about 800 sq ft. One of my friends moved into an old farmhouse last year..huuuuuge place. Huge. Everywhere you look there's another porch or sunroom or sitting room, plus a full attic and basement. It's like having a 4 story house!
 
TravelingGal|1295285022|2824996 said:
Autumnovember|1295284436|2824984 said:
I go between two houses because of school right now so my parents home is 2300 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, on two levels, and a decent fully finished basement. SO's place is 1300 sq ft with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and it's all on one floor. Personally, I can't wait to move into a two story house with SO. I'm not diggin the one story house.
Click to expand...

I'm actually curious, why not?

I did really think as a kid that two story houses were AMAZING. I guess I'm older now and my knees HATE them! It was absolute torture after I had my kid, especially since I had to carry her up and down the stairs. I'm a wuss.

My friend's home is massive...3 stories and about 5500 feet (she's the one with the triplets). She and her DH came over a couple of weeks ago and said it was a real treat to talk in normal voices and not worry about noise waking up the triplets. I was like eh? How is that possible when your house is so big? Of course layout has something to do with it, but they said the plumbing is super loud, the way the pipes are set up, you can just hear every sink and toilet. Our little house is much quieter in that sense.

I was blessed enough to grow up in a 2400 sq ft one story house (not huge, but certainly a good size!), and I think maybe size has something to do with the fact of why I hated one story back them. It seemed to take FOREVER for a little kid to get from one side of the house to the other. Back then, we only had one phone so we often missed the call trying to get the phone from the far ends of the house. The much smaller house I live in now seems more manageable. And vacuuming a one story house is SO nice. (of course, one could just get two vacuums, but I probably wouldn't because I'd spend my money on something else).
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It took me a long time to get used to a one-storey house. First time I've ever lived in one and it's weird to me! I'm grateful that we don't have to mop or vacuum any stairs though. That was my most hated (annual) job. Also, any object I wanted would be guaranteed to be at the other end of the stairs at any given moment.

I have a friend who lives in a baronial mansion. It's so cool to visit and you could fit our entire house in the entrance hall. It has 17 bedrooms (I think). Interestingly, you can hear people talking and walking about pretty much all over that house, while our little cottage is fairly well sound proofed. Their plumbing is loud, too!
 
Dancing Fire|1295293959|2825148 said:
[quote="TravelingGal|1295285022|
I did really think as a kid that two story houses were AMAZING. I guess I'm older now and my knees HATE them! It was absolute torture after I had my kid, especially since I had to carry her up and down the stairs. I'm a wuss.
Click to expand...
i hear my friends say the same about their 2 story homes as they get older,now they wish for a 1 story home.[/quote]

This is interesting. The typical house layout in Scotland is either a cottage, often with dormers (which is called one and a half storey) or a two storey house. If it has dormers too, it's 2.5 storey. Even very modest houses here tend to have the bedrooms upstairs. It's probably harder to find a single storey house and a lot of cottage style houses have been extended into the attics to give rooms upstairs.

When we moved here, before the removal men had finished unpacking, DH had his drawing board set up to design the second storey of this house. Mercifully, we were able to side track him by allowing the demolition of a small internal wall, but it was touch and go there for a while. :bigsmile:
 
Right now we live in 2 story, 3 thousand square feet house. Our basement is also full finished, we don't go down there much though. Since we are moving in March I have been looking at MLS quite often. I LOVE one story bungalows now. There is so much more property then in a normal Toronto area cookie cutter house. I am sick of living on a 50 foot lot!
 
luv2sparkle|1295315809|2825408 said:
Two stories, 3380 sq feet. Don't know why I remember that exactly. 5 bed, 3 bath, loft, and 4 car stacked garage. No basement.
Not to many California houses have basements.

I would rather have a one story. We are 50 now, we will have to see how well we hold up in the future.

Too much to clean. 1200 sq feet looks pretty good, if I could get everyone to move out!
Click to expand...


What is a stacked garage?
 
It is a little wider than a normal 2 car garage but it is two cars deep.
 
We live in a 3,100 SF, 4 bed/3 bath, 2 story antique dormered Cape Cod. We have 2 basements--one is the original dirt-floor basement from the 1700's which houses our oil tank and furnace and the second is a modern basement that we use for storage. We have a 2.5 car attached garage.

We rented 4 different single family homes before buying a house in order to determine what we wanted. The first was a two-story home, then we rented a one-story home after that and decided very quickly that we'd prefer a two-story house.

Our second story is only for bedrooms (all 4 beds and 2 of the baths are upstairs), which is what we were looking for. When DH has "movie" night with a couple of friends, they can have the volume up really high and be laughing hysterically and I don't hear a peep from our bedroom, so I can watch TV in there in peace. Or sleep. The same goes for the guest room--I can be downstairs watching TV and making breakfast without worrying if I'm going to wake them.

I do think that because our house was built so solidly, sound doesn't carry easily. I've actually brought up with D that I'm worried about the future nursery--we may not hear it when the baby cries even though all the bedrooms are on one floor!
 
Tuckins1|1295274428|2824873 said:
2 story colonial from 1923. 1400 square feet- 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom with a basement. It's little but I love it!
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me too! 1928! love it!
 
2 story
5200 sq ft

too much house for the 2 of us
no basement - this is Texas, we'd sink!!

assuming some day we will move, but it's paid for and that's a good feeling
 
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